Internet Meme: Accidental Tourist of 911 (the Tourist Guy) Revealed

Here in the animated but not photoshopped offices of Curmudgeon, I have been checking up on past and current Internet memes. For those that don’t know, a meme (pronounced meem) is something – a saying, an image, a recording, whatever – that catches people’s fancy and spreads like a virus, in this case on the Internet, which is what makes it an Internet meme.

At the Concorde crash.

So I came across the info that The 911 Tourist Guy’s real name is now known to the masses. I’m not sure where I was when this information came out. It was probably when I was living in a beach house on the native side of Freeport, Bahamas, fishing from my boat and drinking at the Conch Cafe, right on the ocean, no walls, wicker ceiling fans, the works, a place Hemingway would have loved. Anyway, the start of The Tourist Guy meme was that picture you see right up top, a man, supposedly a tourist, snapped atop the World Trade Center seconds before the plane hit.

It was sent around by email with this touching note:

“Fw: Different Perspective on the New York Tragedy

At the Hindenberg

Attached is a picture that was taken of a tourist atop the World Trade Center Tower, the first to be struck by a terrorist attack. This camera was found but the subject in the picture had not yet been located.

Makes you see things from a very different position. Please share this and find any way you can to help Americans not to be victims in the future of such cowardly attacks.”

Almost immediately, Snopes pronounced the whole thing an Internet hoax while the Internet pronounced it funny. So the clones began, many of which are posted here and some of which are actually funny and clever.

It has long been our way – us humans that is, I can’t speak for you – to cope with tragedy by making jokes, and these are no different. People need to laugh after something like that. Laughter is a great medicine. Laughter cures hurt.

At the Titanic.

It wasn’t long before the first poseur stepped forward. He had no evidence. Couldn’t produce the original photo. He was pronounced a fraud by whoever pronounces these people frauds. Soon after, another man was fingered by his friends, and he had the evidence. He was a Hungarian named Peter (last name withheld.) He didn’t want people to misunderstand him, he said. Didn’t know it would become so popular, he said. Didn’t know he would obtain Internet infamy, he said.

At last it can be told: His name is Peter Guzli, a 25 year old guy living in Hungary, still trying to cope with his unexpected fame. How’s that infamy thing going for you, Peter?

Next time, I’m going to write about the disgusting meme, Two Girls and a Cup. YOU DON’T WANT TO READ IT!